The Director General of Raw Materials, Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Prof Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso has outlined a new vision for the council which aims to boost research materials that can be useful to manufacturers for the commercialisation of Nigerian products in order to make them competitive globally.
The RMRDC boss made this known during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday to mark his 100 days in office, stressing that the council has developed the template that will guide its research because it is targeting at least 200 patents and to achieve that the institution needs to do researches that can easily be commercialised.
Upon assuming office as the 6th Director General of the Council, Ike-Muonso set five crucial deliverables for transforming the council into a world class research organisation that drives innovation in raw material exploitation, development and utilisation, supporting business and industrial growth, and contributing to Nigeria’s economic prosperity.
These include: Refocusing the Council as a premier research institution; strengthening the Councils productivity and operational efficiency; significantly improving the staff welfare to be the best in the class of similar organizations, boost the councils’ visibility and institute remarkable culture change that encourages ownership and productivity and strengthen and deepen the council’s place in the international arena.
He said, “We want research that will be accepted by the market. Market acceptance of research is when the outcome is positive. If the outcome is not positive then you don’t proceed with it. The new template is to ensure that we are not conducting blue sky research.
“We were not set up to do blue sky research; we were set up to do research that will feed into the needs of the industrial sector particularly the manufacturers, so that has to be the way we do research. The new template is research for industrial competitiveness, which is a key factor for national economic development.”
On the question of 0.5% of GDP that the federal government had earmarked for Research and Development, Prof Ike Muonso said while the idea was good, it faced serious challenges of implementation because of the issue of consistency in revenue generation of the government.
He however, assured that President Bola Tinubu is working out a mechanism to provide funding for research in the country. He added that the council is also making proposals for an innovation fund by inviting donor partners and foreign missions on October 9, 2024 to present its programmes and see how to work with some of them to tap into opportunities in their various countries to assist Nigeria in the research products.
He told the reporters that the council has technical and investment information of every raw material such as solid, agricultural and mineral raw materials and their economic values, which will enable it play a significant role in raw materials data provision.
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